IF/journal
First, here are some of my Illustration Friday “play-around-withs”. Further down on the page are some of my journal-pages. A lot of them inspired from the challenges in the book “Living the creative life” and Teesha Moores art-style.
On IFs website it says:
“Illustration Friday is a weekly creative outlet/participatory art exhibit for illustrators and artists of all skill levels. It was designed to challenge participants creatively. We believe that every person has a little creative bone in their body. Illustration Friday just gives a no-pressure, fun excuse to use it. No clients looking for a particular thing. No one judging the outcome of the work. It’s a chance to experiment and explore and play with visual art.”
So here are some of my very unformal, playing-around, trying-out-new-techniques-or-equipment, doing-something-completely-different-from-my-other-jobs, creative (or not) outlets.
Illustration Fridays challenges:
August 27th: Immovable
August 20th: Atmosphere
August 13th: Stargazing
August 6th: Caged
July 30th: Artificial
July 23rd: Double
July 16th: Breakfast
July 9th: Diary
July 2nd: Giant
June 25th: Satellite
June 18th: Paisley
June 11th: Ripple
June 4th: Trail
May 28th: Slither
May 21st: Early
May 14th: Equipment
May 7th: Fearless
April 30th: Cocoon
April 23rd: Ahead
April 16th: detective
April 9th: linked
April 2nd: Dip
March 26th: Rescue
March 19th: Expired
March 12th: Subterranean
March 5th: Brave
February 26th: Perspective
February 19th: Propagate
February 12th: Afloat
February 5th: Muddy
January 29th: Focused
January 22nd: Clumsy
January 15th: Wilderness
January 8th: Contained
January 1st: Renew
December 25th: Pioneer
December 18th: Undone
December 11th: Hatch
December 4th: Crunchy
27th: Entangled
November 20th: Music
November 13th: Unbalanced
November 6th: Blur
October 30th: Skinny
October 23rd: Fast
October 16th: Frozen
October 9th: Flying
October 2nd: Germs
September 25th: Pattern
September 18th: Infinete
Miracles – small and big – microcosmos and macrocosmos – infinately big and infinately small – infinately empty and infinately filled – divine and human – created in God´s image – a miracle – a life waiting to be lived and to wonder underneath the starsin infinaty – a miracle it is.
__________________________
I made these two pages when I learned that my sister was pregnant with my nephew. He is now four years old, and a gem of a boy!
September 11th: Welcome
Based on the opening song of “Cabaret!”, I started to work on a poster for a pretend-production. I worked with a silouette of a classical Sally Bowles-figure, but decided to make a more personal version, with a picture of myself. It might not be too exciting texture-wise, but I prefer the personal touch anyway.
September 4th: Strong
August 28th: Magnify
Just a quick collage for If, to get the creative flow started this Monday. I was thinking about a radio-program I heard some years ago, about the first time ever the police convicted someone for a crime by comparing fingerprints from the crime-scene with every single male inhabitant in a certain area. A village in England, I believe. Some 3-4000 fingerprints having to be checked individually with magnifying glasses by Scotland Yard. They were about to give up, when the murderer´s fingerprints showed up in the last dozen or so of the total amount.
The image above has nothing to do with the story, neither Sherlock Holmes or any female train-robbers were involved. 
August 21st: Caution
Woman as a demonic temptress who needs to cover herself up not to provoke men, or woman as a pornographic sex-object who needs to undress to tempt men… the “ideal” is different, but both define women according to men and mens lust. How about defining women for just what they are: human beings with thoughts and feelings and abilities and hearts?
Maybe it´s a stretch to call it fanatism, but in any case we should be very careful reducing women´s worth to what she is for men. She is valuable plenty, just as she is, independent of men.
August 14th: Wrapped
Since I read this weeks theme, the lyrics from “I´m so excited” have been running in my mind: “I wanna wrap myself around you”
However, I decided to go with a version of “all dressed up, and nowhere to go”. (I´m not sure what that would imply). Anyway, even though it´s the easiest collage ever, I did arrange and photograph the girl with the towel wrapped around her head. So this week has been more playing with all the bright and warm tones of yellow, and composition.
August 7th: Impatience
A picture I made from a photo I took yesterday, while out in the boat. I never cease to be amazed by the waves, the sea and the naked rock-faces out here on the islands.
July 31st: Modify
July 17th: Tango
“It´s the red shoes, they can´t stop dancing!” is a quote from Kate Bush´s song from the CD The red shoes. Her song is inspired by an old movie also called “The red shoes” about a ballerina who is tricked into putting on a pair of magical red ballet-shoes. They make you dance like never before, and in fact, they won´t stop dancing! She becomes the best prima ballerina, but it all ends tragically, as her shoes keeps her dancing until she dies of exhaustion.
A sad story, but tango is anything but. It does have a good portion of magic to it though! I was once at a tango-beginners-class in Berlin. (Berlin, apparently, has the largest tango-community outside Argentina.) After an hour with practice, other more routined dancers joined, and a live band played tango all night. It was a very special atmosphere, I promise! To be lead in dance by a man who really knows how to dance… it´s a treat. A treat!
July 10th: Hollow
I know now that this is the wrong lyrics for “Bette Davis eyes”, but for almost thirty years I firmly believed the lyrics were “Her head is hollow gold” when actually it is “Her hair is Harlowe gold”… So I don´t know if it is my hearing that is bad, or if it is Kim Carnes´ articulation that is not so great, but at the end of the day, I still really like my misconception of the lyrics. I´ve thought about that: what kind of a personality does a girl have, that is being described like that? I don´t think it´s a compliment…
This is the first page in my calender-journal/ journal-calender…
For more pictures from my calender-journal, click here!
This is a picture made for Inspire me Thursday, where the theme was OWL:
The owl is a symbol of wisdom, a virtue that perhaps isn´t appreciated enough these days… I was thinking about what is demanded, or certainly what should be demanded from a leader today. And I found these questions, which I added to the picture:
1. Does this person live a life of grace?
2. Do others seek this person’s counsel?
3. Does this person live a consistent life?
4. Does this person show depth of thought?
5. Does this person show breadth of thought?
6. Does this person make judgments impartially?
7. Does this person understand suffering?
Wouldn´t it be interesting if todays leader had to pass a test based on these questions in order to gain power?
July 3rd: Shaky
June 26th: Worn
not sorry at all, this week I was in Paris…
June 12th: Unfold
Part of a series of dish-drying cloths, baby-bibs and bread-bags.
June 5th: Crave
Two-in-one this week, both IF´s “Craving” and Inspire Me Thursday´s “The lost art of letter writing” challenges are rolled into one here. The background is painted acrylics (as I really need to practice this), and the poem written over it is one I found online by Paulo Nerula. Apart from the first two words “My dear”, the poem is exact. I added those two words, to make it seem more like a letter.
May 29th: Adapt
May 22nd: Cracked
For this weeks theme I was inspired by the lyrics of a Blondie-song. The photos are partly old containers, and an old ships figurehead. Also I added a dictionary explanation of the word Phrenology, the science of the special functions of different parts of the brain.
May 15th: Contagious
Illustration Fridays challenge this week is “Contagious”. Instead of getting to caught up in the swine-flu, I thought about a positive version. In my favorite movie “The fabulous Amelie from Montmartre” one of the main characters collects funny laughs. Just the kind of weird thing I like And I find it to be true, nothing is as contagious as a good laugh!
May 8th: Parade
A quick watercolor-doodle while watching James Bond Octopussy on TV…
May 1st: Hierarchy
God is love
Religion is man-made
These are 6 big broaches I made in India last year in a jewelry-workshop. I originally intended to use them as part of some costumes, but there was a change of plans and they were never used. They are made of glass, beads, mirror-parts, glitter, silver and resin. And though it is not an ordinary technique to find in IF, I thought the idea fit the theme.
April 24th: Theatre
I was thinking along the lines of “to be or not to be”, but found that to melo-dramatic. Then I decided this instead, which is far more personal. It´s true! I like acting! I like traveling the world! And I like living! So in other words: I like “to be”!
April 17th: Impossibilty
Lots of options for impossible here. Trying to read the ferry´s timetable, trying to make a pattern for a banner, trying to make the rubics cube work out, and of course the absolutely un-behaving, impossibly spoilt merchild!
This was actually a picture I made demonstrating different techniques to a beginners Photoshop class this week. And today the wild child ended behind bars on the rubics cube.
April 10th: Fleeting
Not at all satisfied with the letters in the title, but very happy about the stamp (of the waves). I tried a new way of making stamps, and I think it is great how you can have tiny details show. The same morning I had breakfast at Trinidad Beach in North California.
April 3rd: Talisman
Swimming with the Sea Candy. Is not about a talisman in any way, unless a goldfish was holy. But this is what I painted on this weeks page anyway. And I had just made the stamp with the waves or sea-weed.
March 27th: Poise
I was on holiday for this one, so it isn´t done yet.
March 20th: Subtract
Very much thinking about Artfest which was about to begin. And the theme for Artfest was Seamonsters, so there you have it…
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March 13th: Legendary
I had just made some pictures for Skandi Arctic, lots of them with Nansen on them, so I used one that I already had made earlier the same week.
March 6th: Intricate
Keeping the world green is an intricate affair…
February 26th: Breezy
I made this one very much inspired from The Charm School Dropout
February 20th: Instinct
I think I was inspired by Charles Darwins anniversary on this one.
February 13th: Celebrate
Not much done to this old poster I found a copy of, but a good reminder of  carneval-times.
February 6th: Time
I was thinking about the hourglass and the hourglass-figure, and decided to combine them.
January 30th: Flawed
A collaged piece made of two prints, painted over. And then some…
January 16th: Pale
My pale feet in Guatemala. I also made the heart-stamp in the back and wanted to try it out.
January 9th: Contained
I was thinking about how I´ve taught classes in making corsets, and how they change the shape of what they “contain” into an ideal(?)
January 2nd: Resolve
Here I made a stamp of Obama, but it slipped when I printed it, so he seems a bit blurry.
The whole world eagerly awaits for him to resolve all our problems. Its a tough job!
Here are a couple of previous IF-themes, and most not, just ordinary journal-pages. Made on indian cotton-paper, mainly acrylics and collage, found objects and crayons.
